African Journal of Business Management Vol.6 (23), pp. 6880-6889, 13 June, 2012 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM DOI: 10.5897/AJBM11.2819 ISSN 1993-8233 ©2012 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper A framework for accessing an enterprise business intelligence maturity model (EBI2M): Delphi study approach Min-Hooi Chuah 1 * and Kee-Luen Wong 2 1 Faculty of Information, Communication and Technology, University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Perak, Malaysia. 2 Faculty of Business and Finance, University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Perak, Malaysia. Accepted 9 January, 2012 The implementation of enterprise-scale business intelligence (EBI) system is a complicated process involving considerable resources and numerous stakeholders over a lengthy time. To date, there has been only limited formal research work that explores the various key dimensions affecting EBI implementation efforts. This shortcoming arises from the fact that the business intelligence (BI) market is a relatively new phenomenon, with most of the pioneering work being driven in an informal, ad-hoc basis by various vendors in the IT industry. Therefore, the goal of this research is to seek to bridge the gap that exists between academia and practitioners. In particular, the research work will draw upon the maturity constructs underlying the prominent capability maturity model integration (CMMI) developed at Carnegie Mellon University. The driving motivation is to develop an EBI maturity model (EBI2M) that can serve as a useful guideline for enterprises which are planning, or undertaking large-scale EBI initiatives. In the first stage, the author utilises a Delphi study to conduct three rounds of enquiries with a panel of BI experts, and then refines the research into a preliminary EBI2M model. However, reliance on the Delphi study alone is not sufficient for the collection of data needed to rigorously address the research objective. Therefore, based on the research constructs and findings of Delphi study, multiple case studies will be carried out in the future. Key words: Business intelligence, maturity model. INTRODUCTION Today, business intelligence (BI) play an essential role particular in business areas. The important role can be seen as the BI applications have appeared the top spending priority for many Chief Information Officers (CIO) and it remains the most important technologies to be purchased for past five years (Gartner Research, 2007, 2008, 2009). In fact, various market researchers including Gartner Research and International Data Corporation (IDC), forecast that the BI market will be in strong growth till 2014 (Richardson et al., 2008). Although, there has been a growing interest in BI area, success for implementing BI is still a questionable (Ang *Corresponding author. E-mail: chuahmh@utar.edu.my. and Teo, 2000; Lupu et al., 1997; Computerworld, 2003). Lupu et al. (1997) reported that about 60 to 70% of business intelligence applications fail due to the technology, organizational, cultural and infrastructure issues. Furthermore, EMC Corporation argued that many BI initiatives have failed because tools were not accessible through to end users and the result of not meeting the end users’ need effectively. Computerworld (2003) stated that BI projects fail because of failure to recognize BI projects as cross organizational business initiatives, unengaged business sponsors, unavailable or unwilling business representatives, lack of skilled and available staff, no business analysis activities, no appreciation of the impact of dirty data on business profitability and no understanding of the necessity for and the use of meta-data. A maturity model is needed to